Guilting Germany Into a More Aggressive Foreign Policy

Der Spiegelreports on a change in German foreign policy thanks to the new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier:

Steinmeier doesn’t want to push Germany into foreign military adventures. But he, like von der Leyen, has realized the damage Westerwelle did with speeches calling for a “policy of military restraint.”

Westerwelle’s stance was in keeping with the passive role West Germany played during the Cold War, before Germany attained full sovereignty with unification. Although his position was mainly motivated by domestic politics, it went along with a veiled accusation that London, Paris and Washington were too trigger-happy. And Germany’s partners didn’t appreciate that. Germany gained a reputation as a moralistic nation keen to wag its finger, but unwilling to get involved when things got dangerous.

It appears that a decade of other Westerners’ attempts to make Germans feel bad that they didn’t want to attack other countries is finally starting to have some effect. Germany’s unwillingness to participate in unnecessary foreign wars, and its opposition to them, has been one of the best things about German foreign policy in this century. The fact that other Western governments have been urging it to go in a more aggressive direction has been ridiculous. It is unfortunate that Germany feels compelled to change its position because its allies cannot seem to keep themselves out of one conflict after another. It is even more regrettable that Germany finds itself being dragged by France into supporting a more interventionist foreign policy, since France’s activism abroad makes it and Britain the clear outliers in Europe.

It would be one thing if Germany were shirking its obligations to defend its European allies, but that isn’t what has been happening. In every case over the last ten years, Germany has found itself opposing various wars of choice that its American and European allies wanted to fight, and somehow it is Germany that has been faulted for not wanting to go along. A typical criticism of this position is that the German government is too sensitive to public opinion, but surely it is better to err on the side of paying too much attention to the electorate than flatly ignoring and bypassing them as many Syria hawks wished that the U.S. and U.K. had done. Even if it keeps irritating other Western governments, Merkel would be well-advised to continue a policy of restraint.

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10 Responses to Guilting Germany Into a More Aggressive Foreign Policy

Germany was right to counsel and practice restraint. That enrages the blunderers and lobbyists for foreign interests who have dominated our foreign policy since G. H. W. Bush departed from the White House. Their argument boils down to “Germany had no business being right. When we say so, Germany has to swim in s**t like everybody else.”

Don’t know about this Steinmeier character, but somehow I can’t picture Dr. Merkel bending over yet another interventionist disaster blueprint emanating from the discredited US neolib/neocon crowd. She seems to be made of sterner stuff than the obsequious little public school boys of Downing Street – and saner stuff than the grandiose Presidents of la belle France.

I am not sure that this would be possible if Germany hadnt moved away from a conscript army about a decade ago.

One should also note that the German SPD pretty much transformed its foreign policy to align with the liberal intervenionist consensus.
The only ones still favoring “restraint” right now are the far left “Linkspartei”, which btw. includes the Communists.

How about Germany taking some responsibility for the mess created by an expansionist Israel that keeps citing the German ethnic cleansing of Jews as justification for Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

It is time for Germany to stop funding Israel’s Prussian militarism and, instead, make amends by paying for the return of Israelis to Europe. This is already happening on a small scale and needs to be encouraged.

The article seems to paint a different picture – less of an emphasis on fighting, more of an emphasis on logistics to assist in peacekeeping operations – and primarily to help France (especially in Africa).
The German government is not endorsing anything like Iraq, and remains disillusioned with Afghanistan. But does want to be more active in humanitarian disasters.

The Germans have been clobbered over the head for 50 years (often by themselves) about
the urgency of heeding Conscience and Reason when faced with irrational calls to mass violence. Now the incompetents who dragged America into places like Iraq and Afghanistan are furious with them for doing exactly that.

The problem with allowing discredited pundits and bureaucrats to keep their jobs is that they eventually get round to blaming the consequences of their incompetence on others. That’s exactly what’s going on here.